You always know when you get a Metrick in your hands, you’re in for something off-mainstream, delicious–but maybe edgily so–and ESPECIALLY when it happens to be Cab Franc: guaranteed to be a crisp, nuanced Loire-style wonder. This kid makes amazing wines–tiny production and quite under-the-radar. I reviewed this wine last year, and was equally blown away. Crazy purple-ruby in the glass, out to a blue rim. Godly amounts of tomato-vine and dank vegetal cling tightly to ridiculous ripe cherry, melon and juicy peach. A certain squished-bug piquantness grants vibrancy to the achy, stony minerality.
In the mouth, riper and more refined than the 18–IMHO. There’s a calmness to the integration of acid and fruit seamless in approach and invigorating in resolution. Perhaps a tad less edgily Chinon-esque in terms of what we typically see interpreted in California, but drinking like the masters of the region: like Baudry or Raffault. The last whiff of barnyard you get as the wine enters translates directly onto the round briar and spice of the palate. Thin and un-viscous over the middle, a wide spritely rinse of tart cherry–quickly settling down to more brambly depth and berry-concentration. Tannins are a heavenly affair: chalky and distinct, tainted with peach-pit and mustard greens. It is near-perfection, and your last thought is: HOW DO I GET MORE OF THIS WINE. And there-in lies the rub: there’s only THREE barrels–and it’s CHEAP–so… ummmm… I don’t need to tell you what to do….
2019 METRICK WINES Cabernet Franc Rock Hollow Vyd Los Olivos District Santa Ynez Valley Santa Barbara Co. 13.0
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Stephen McConnell 